About SHR

We’re just two girls who love watching hockey and then talking about it. We’re huge fans of the Dallas Stars - we love the game, the players, and the entire franchise - but we also just really love hockey. This is where we indulge in our minor obsession.

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Game Review – 11/22/08 (DAL vs ANA)

by Chelsea

No game review for the Hawks game, because the only part of that game that ended up really mattering was something that happened in the last six minutes. No need to write out just how badly it the game went.

Game:

Last night, the Stars faced the Anaheim Ducks for the second time this season and the first time at home. The puck dropped at 7:00 PM CT. This was probably the first time since opening night that the crowd rose to their feet when the Stars starting line/defense was announced, which was really nice to see.

Our starting line was Neal-Ribeiro-Avery, with Grossman-Zubov on D. In net for the Stars was Marty Turco, while Anaheim started their backup goalie, Jonas Hiller.

The first period was on fire. That’s what I love about playing the Ducks- no matter how bad things have been, its always Duck Season when Anaheim rolls into town. I didn’t do the exact math, but I think there were the first 3 minutes and a minute or so in between penalties without someone in the box, but for the other 15 minutes of the first, there was always someone in one of the penalty boxes.

It all kicked off at 2:50, when Ryan Getzlaf took two minutes for cross checking Sean Avery. I can only imagine what Avery was saying to get him worked up so quickly. Before that PP even finished, Avery got into it with Steve Montador. After some angry shuffling, Montador came away with 2 minutes for roughing, and Avery matched that but also got 2 for unsportsmanlike conduct (served by Mark Parrish). So, at 4:40, we switched from PP to PK.

PK = not so hot. At 5:37, Corey Perry exploited Turco’s inability to plug the 5-hole for a quick power play goal, putting them up 1-0. To this I say (with considerable disgust), “Averryyyy.”

Another reason I love Krys Barch: he hates stupid 80’s wrestler mustaches just as much as I do! Only two seconds after the Ducks scored, Barch tried his best to wipe that ugly facial hair right off George Parros, using his fists.

Unfortunately, Parros is something of a monster (6’5”, 231 lbs) and got a few solid hits in with Barch in no position to retaliate. The only real hit Barch got in, though, happened to be hard enough to send Parros to the ice. I’d call it a draw.

Both got 5 minute fighting majors.

Landon Wilson, 33-year-old son of Stars associate coach Rick Wilson, was dressed for the Stars after having been called up after Morrow’s hugely unfortunate injury. He wore #22 and the first thing he did as a Star was get a hooking minor. I think at this point (6:03 in the first) we had Avery, Barch, Parrish, and Wilson in the box. The Ducks box had Parros and Montador.

Things went fairly smoothly for a bit here, teams doing the usual hitting, PKing, and puck scrambling. Then, Avery got out of the box. It took him less than five minutes to get back in it.

At 12:10, Avery was able to get an actual fight in, against Chris Kunitz (who later got a cheap shot in at Avery’s helmet as he skated to the bench, which Avery rightly ignored). The fight was pretty much a draw, but Avery got the last laugh when he grabbed Kunitz by the face to force him to the ice.

Mike Modano always seems to get jealous of people in the penalty box, as he once again trips someone to go take a sit-down with a teammate (only 13 seconds after the fight). Luckily, this didn’t put us down by two men like it did last time he pulled this stunt. I laugh a little at how Mo must have felt, sitting in the penalty box with Sean Avery.

Killed that penalty off, and got a power play of our own when Bret Hedican took a hooking on Toby Petersen (who I am absolutely convinced should be a defenseman, not a center) at 15:47.

This next part was funny for two reasons. One, because Kristine absolutely called it. Two, because of how startled 210 lb Montador looked when 193 lb Ott turned around after slamming him into the boards and shoved him.

For such an exciting start, the fight itself kind of sucked. They basically wrapped their arms around each other and skated in a circle. Razor cracked a joke about Tom Bergeron (from Dancing with the Stars) showing up. Sorry Otter, but that one was a draw too.

More fighting majors distributed.

Got a power play at the end of the period when Travis Moen elbowed a Star at 19:19.

And that’s how the first ended, with 46 minutes in penalties between the two teams.

The second started with good momentum, seeing as we were on a power play for the first 80 seconds. Then we got a short two-man advantage. At 00:46, Brett Festerling got two minutes for hooking, giving the Stars a full 30 seconds of 5-on-3 followed by 90 of 5-on-4.

The Ducks killed off the PP until Loui Eriksson got a minor interference at 1:16 (right as our 5-on-3 ended) that evened it out to 4-on-4. I think. Either way, the only good thing to come of that penalty mess was a good scoring chance from Ribeiro that was unfortunately stopped by Hiller.

To add to the penalty mess, Chris Pronger was all, like, “Oooh, interference, that looks like funnn.” so he totally copied Loui and got 2 for interfering on Sean Avery, ’cause, like, everybody wants a piece of Aves.

Now, this was the first game as alternate captain Stephane Robidas, and he stepped up nicely in the second after Festerling got a hit in on Mike Ribeiro (that I believe caused him to lose his helmet). Robidas, in return, introduced Festerling to both his shoulder and the boards. To add a little (probably unintended) insult, he stumbled over the attempting-to-rise Festerling without even seeming to notice he was there.

At about 11:20, both Brad Richards and Sergei Zubov nearly scored, and Fabian Brunnstrom nearly got the rebound. For someone who looks sorta timid when he’s on the ice, Bunny put in a heck of an effort that left him sitting in the crease- still trying to stuff the puck past Hiller.

A+ for persistence.

With the momentum strongly favoring the Stars, and Turco blocking everything sent his way to keep it at a 1-0 game, it was only a matter of time before someone’s golden opportunity produced a point.

It’d be Loui Eriksson, further cementing his current standing as team leading goal scorer, who popped a pretty one past Hiller. The play started with Marty Turco, who left his crease to retrieve the puck from behind his net and send it along the boards, where Trevor Daley picked it up. Daley hit the boosters and him and Eriksson zipped across center ice into Anaheim’s defensive zone. Daley veered left, Eriksson went right, Daley passed, and Eriksson caught it as he sailed past the crease for a swift backhand into the net.

Then Daley mauled Eriksson with a congratulatory hug.

Now, there’s something Neal did during this that was oddly reminiscent of a much-missed style of play that we used to see constantly from the Stars; he took the man, not the puck. As Turco’s pass whipped around the boards, Neal cut off the lone Duck in position to take the puck, and Daley was there to collect it as it slipped past.

Daley and Turco officially got the assists, but Neal’s move opened up the opportunity for Daley. So I’m going to credit him in our +/- for an assist anyway.

I nearly left my seat to go strangle Avery when he got another roughing penalty at 14:57 in the second, which led to a Corey Perry goal at 15:03. However, Turco apparently knocked the net off its moorings during the attempted save, and the goal was disallowed. The Ducks were understandably peeved, and Turco admitted that maybe it wasn’t the fairest call, but I’m sure Morrow was sitting somewhere feeling a little bit of retribution.

Right at the end of the period, Chris Pronger hooked Neal, giving the Stars a full two minutes of PP to start the third on.

Third period, again started with a brief 5-on-3 thanks to Scott Niedermayer getting an interference penalty at 00:38. For probably the third or fourth time this season, the Stars failed to score on a prime two man advantage opportunity. They got maybe two SOG during the PP.

Tis the season of double penalties, apparently. Quiet giant Nicklas Grossman got a little rowdy and took it out on Ryan Getzlaf. They tried to duel it out and both got slashing penalties. Grossman got a good shove in on Getzlaf before they were separated, though.

The last eight minutes of regulation were tense and energetic but still ended 1-1. OT was even more tense and energetic but those five minutes ended 1-1 as well.

Shootout! I hate shootouts. I predicted Ribeiro, Eriksson, and Modano for the shooters. It was actually Richards, Zubov, and Ribeiro.

Richards scored, hoorah, but after Turco let in a goal from Perry, it was up to Zubov and Ribeiro. Zubov had some fancy skating, but ended up sending the puck right to Hiller. Ribeiro tried a fancy between the legs move again, but just missed. Getzlaf was last for the Ducks, and he correctly predicted Turco’s movements enough to win the shootout 2-1 Ducks. That ended the game 2-1 Ducks as well. The standing points also were distributed 2-1 in favor of the Ducks.

One point > zero points, but one point =/= enough to climb out of the cellar.

Notes:

The three game stars (in order): Hiller, Getzlaf, Daley

Turco stopped 23 of 24 shots for a .958 sv% despite having started by letting in the first Duck shot of the game.

The Ducks ended with 12 penalties for a total of 33 minutes. The Stars had 10 penalties and 29 minutes.

Sean Avery led the Stars in PIM for the game, with 11.

Sergei Zubov led in TOI, with 31:49.

Mike Modano tanked in the faceoff circle with only 38% wins (8 out of 22). Best was Mike Ribeiro, who won 10 in 8 for 56%.

Modano and Robidas led in SOG, with 4 each.

Matt Niskanen was scratched for Doug Janik, who clocked in for 7:57 ice time.

Steve Ott led in hits (5) and Trevor Daley in blocked shots (3).

In the four games that have gone into OT this season, the Stars have won 0 of them.

Conclusion: I saw nearly 60 minutes of (to borrow Robidas’ term) work ethic from every Star. Turco was impressive, but is getting predictable with his 5-hole issues. This team has too much respect for Morrow to not pull together for his sake. My money’s on finally seeing a winning streak soon.

SHR +/-:

Nicklas Grossman: two for throwing his weight around against the Ducks; +2Stephane Robidas: two for continuing to prove himself worthy of the ‘A’; +2Trevor Daley: two for the assist and one for leading in blocked shots; +3Mike Modano: minus-one for getting so easily knocked off the puck all night; -1Brenden Morrow: 😦 ; +1Krys Barch: one for the fight; +1Sean Avery: minus-one for each of the stupid penalties and one for the fight; -2James Neal: two for the assist and one for having a strong overall game; +3Loui Eriksson: three for the goal; +3Steve Ott: one for the fight, one for leading in hits, and one for leading in takeaways; +3Marty Turco: two for the assist, two for a fairly solid game, but minus-one for getting bested by a backup in a shootout; +3Sergei Zubov: one for being a machine, albeit a slightly rusty one; +1Mike Ribeiro: one for the fancy shootout move but minus-one for not scoring on it; +0Brad Richards: two for scoring on the shootout; +2Fabian Brunnstrom: two for having one of his best games since his debut, despite not getting any points to show for it; +2

Off Ice +/-:

Trevor Daley: one for a funny “60 seconds with…” during intermission; +1Mark Parrish: two for being surprisingly friendly at Friday’s practice; +2Brad Richards: minus-two for being so incredibly mopey so consistently that we’ve stopped feeling concerned and started feeling annoyed at his pessimistic pouting; -2

I almost stole your great idea of showing freeze-frames from the games, to show how Avery coasted into the zone 30 feet behind Ribeiro, who was on a breakaway, instead of going to the net, leaving poor Ribs with no option but to shoot. I was screaming at the TV about that.

Another great recap, by the way! I’m counting this one as a hard-fought tie.